Radiohead walk off twice as Coachella's sound fails

Radiohead left the stage twice during their headline set on the first Friday of Coachella, at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, when the sound failed under them. They came back both times and finished the night, 22 songs ending with “Karma Police”. Back on stage after the second walk-off, Thom Yorke told the crowd, I'd love to tell you a joke, lighten the mood, something like that. But this is Radiohead, so fuck it.⁶

Their third Coachella set, after 2004 and 2012, began about 20 minutes late, a little before 11pm. Three songs in, during “Ful Stop”, the PA squawked and went silent while the band, unaware, played on and the big screens kept showing them. Once he could be heard again Yorke blamed aliens.

About a minute into “15 Step” the sound cut again and the stage went dark, and the band walked off, Ed O'Brien signalling that they would be back. They returned five or six minutes later with “The National Anthem”, which was still unsteady. Near the end of “Let Down” the main stage speakers went a third time, and the band left again, O'Brien with his hands pressed together as if in prayer. The festival's live stream lost its sound along with the field. Through all of it Jonny Greenwood kept thrashing at his guitar, whether anyone could hear it or not.

They came back with “Street Spirit (Fade Out)”, and the rest of the set ran without trouble, though some of the crowd had gone by then. “Creep” closed the main set. Lanre Bakare, reviewing the night for The Guardian, calls failures like these rare on stages that size and inexcusable at a festival of Coachella's standing. At one point Yorke told the crowd, We guarantee that no autotune will be used during the show. All our mistakes are our own work.⁶

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